RELIGIO-MILITARY ORGANIZATION.
By W. E. CORNELL
It has not been very long since, all over this land, the voice of professed Protestantism has been heard in notes of alarm against the military drills that for some time have been known to be carried on within the circles of various Catholic orders; and when the fact was noised abroad that those who are being thus drilled were liberally supplied with firearms, the protest grew more vigorous, and was regarded as conclusive evidence that it "foreboded no good." But, for some unaccountable reason, this military spirit has of late taken possession of many of these very protesting Protestants, and all over the country, as if by magic, have sprung up within the Protestant churches military companies, uniformed, drilled, and armed in precisely the same manner as a company of soldiers would be who were preparing for the battle field. In this city there have been organized nearly a dozen such companies during the past year, and an inquiry as to the reason for this formation, from one specially interested, elicited the reply, "It is the most successful means we have found of keeping our young men within the pale of the church." When our Saviour was here among men, he said to his disciples, "If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me." Is not the above excuse for these religio-military operations a sad, sad comment on the decline of godliness among the churches? Yet one of the characteristics of the professed church of God during the last days was that it would "have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof." "From such," the apostle says, "turn away." But what is the inevitable result of this practice on the young mind? Does it inculcate the principles of peace for which the gospel of Christ is set? No, indeed, but the rather, as Mr. B. O. Flower, in an article in the Arena for August, says, "It is but the fostering of the savage in the young." Mr. Flower is not a Christian, and can hardly be said to be even a believer in the Bible, yet he sees the inevitable result of this course, as well as the inconsistency of professed Christians having anything to do with introducing such a thing into their organization, and says:— The error they [the churches] committed lay in departing from the fundamental teachings of their own accredited Leader, whom they believe to be a God, and who, in life and word, emphasized in the most solemn and impressive manner the importance of driving from the brain every dream of war, every ideal that looked forward toward physical violence, every thought which comprehended the taking of human life. But, aside from the antichristian idea of war that is sure to be inculcated in the minds of the young, through these military organizations, have not the Catholics, who have been charged with drilling their young men for an "evil purpose," as perfect and legitimate a right to believe that there is also an evil purpose on the part of Protestant leaders in thus arming and drilling their young men on these same lines? Can he who stands aloof and disinterestedly views the scene distinguish any difference? We have been told that we need not be surprised at the occurrence of anything from this time forward, but the thinking, observing man is surprised to a degree almost past comprehension at the developments on every hand in the moral and social world; and the idea of an armed militia, independent of the State; being carried on within the church, is one of the strangest and most incomprehensible of them all. It forebodes evil, and evil only.